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Thursday, June 24, 2010

YES, YES, and YES! This is a question that often comes up during new fittings and follow ups. On the back of every package of hearing aid batteries there is a warning about the danger of battery consumption and a phone number you can call --you can even call it collect--202-625-3333. Batteries can cause serious damage to your esophagus if they get hung up on the way to your stomach.

Here are the steps you should follow:

Immediately call you physician. If you don't have a primary care physician, go the the emergency room.

DO NOT TRY to induce vomiting. Stay away from the ipecac syrup.

If you have time and are our patient, call the office and let us know what happened so that we can also contact your physician or the emergency room.

Also take along the battery package. It's not a requirement, but it will be helpful.

You need an x-ray of the throat, chest, and stomach. If the battery is still in the throat/esophagus area, it will need to be removed immediately using a special type of fiber optic tool, endoscope. Damage to the esophagus can occur in as little as one hour.

If the battery moved to your stomach, then you will need to monitor your elimination to ensure that it passes in the stool. If you don't notice it after a week you will need another X-ray.

If have placed a link here to the National Capital Poison Center. This is the contact for the phone number listed above. In addition, I placed a link here (about 70kb's to download). to a pdf document that you can download to your computer.

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Edison Stanford Hearing Centers of Utah

Welcome to our Hearing Health Blog. We hope you find the information here helpful and informative. Our offices have been serving Utah communities for over 29 years and we are dedicated to improving the quality of life for all individuals who suffer from hearing loss. This is the main reason we have started this online collection of helpful information. Please feel free to visit our main website, where you can find additional information including videos and up-to-date news articles.